Christmas Dance Performances

As the year winds down and the hustle and bustle of last minute shopping goes into full gear, many families are attending Christmas dance performances.  These events can be an enriching experience for the whole family.  Watching a dance performance, together as a family, helps the family unit bond through this shared experience.  Many Christmas performances are so enthralling even the email and social media addicts will put down their phones to watch the show. 

There are many options for families to attend Christmas dance performances.  Some get tickets to the ballet to see the Nutcracker while others may attend a local church or dance studio performance.  Some families are lucky enough to attend their own child’s Christmas dance performance, one the child and parents are sure to remember for years to come. 

These performances give the child a chance to show off newly learned skills and dance combinations.  The parents and siblings are given an opportunity to see how much their child, or brother or sister, has learned and to praise them for their efforts.

In general, dance is a powerful ally for developing many of the attributes of a growing child.  Dance helps children mature physically, emotionally, socially, and cognitively.  The physical benefits of dance are widely accepted, but the emotional, social and cognitive attributes have only recently begun to be appreciated.

Through dance, students learn to create their own success by letting go of fear and releasing their natural self-expression.  Students gain confidence, learn to think on their feet (literally!), expand creativity, improve social skills, and become more comfortable managing new situations and transitions in their own lives.

Performances, such as Christmas dance performances benefit children in that the event enables them to see how their hard work has paid off.  Their own success and the success of working with their peers will well up inside of them as they receive applause for their performance, even cheers from the audience, and then possibly receiving flowers and words of praise afterwards – all are self-confidence building moments.

The dance students learn that through practice they are able to achieve so much more than they initially thought possible.  Dance lessons teach students that nothing worth having comes easy.  Learning to dance takes many hours of dedication, hard work and sweat equity.  Dancers, like anyone learning a new skill, may become frustrated that they cannot master a particularly hard move or dance combination.  But, with practice, they are able to see how over time, they are able to master even the hardest steps.  The benefit a child receives in applying themselves through practice to learn a new skill can carry on throughout their lives and throughout other areas of interest.  Now that they have mastered one skill, the world is their oyster. 

About Wagner Dance and Music
Since 1989, Wagner Dance and Music, a performing arts school, has been teaching East Valley students. Our 3600 square foot Gilbert facility is conveniently located on the southeast corner of Gilbert and Guadalupe in the Big Lots plaza. We offer classes for ages 2 to adult in Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Hip-Hop, Lyrical, Tumbling, Cheer, Musical Theater and Voice as well as adult classes.  For more information about Student Appreciation Day or to sign up for a class, visit http://wagnerdancearts.com or call 480-892-7179.